


We'll Learn Together

by Luckie



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Recovery, Steve coming to terms with Asexuality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-03 12:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2851598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luckie/pseuds/Luckie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Sam, Bucky, and Steve joined the army together and watched Bucky get killed in action. They are then asked to join the Avengers Initiative per their record of their time in the Army. Sam's enthusiasm encourages Steve to say yes. Then the Chitauri attack Manhattan and the rest is history.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Love is a Ghost

“Steve, talk to me” Natasha brought two steaming mugs from the kitchen to the living room. She set them down on the coffee table and turned to Steve. He made a small moan from his position on the couch. She gently lifted his head and sat where it was, placing his head in her lap. 

Steve turned onto his back and looks up to Natasha before his eyes glaze over again. She gently strokes Steve’s hair with one hand and sip her hot chocolate with the other. 

“There was nothing I could do. It was like Sam and I were there just to watch . . . To watch it all happen.” Steve shut his eyes. “We knew he was in there. Any closer to the building and he could’ve heard us if we yelled.” Steve turned away from Natasha to wrap his arms around himself. “And then we watched the thing turn into dust. Not just blown up; vaporized, just like a Hydra weapon. They couldn’t even identify the remains of the building from the remains of the bodies. I made them do mass check. They— they said it wouldn’t tell much. I- I just wanted a shimmer of hope. Maybe we were wrong— maybe he wasn’t in that building, maybe he didn’t get tortured for info and then—then— ”

“Shhh, Steve” Natasha touched Steve’s face lightly, coaxing his mouth shut. Streams made their way from his eyes, but he remained quiet, refusing to sob.  

It was the next day she set him up with Sharon. After weeks of putting himself back together with both of their help, he never stopped thanking Natasha for that stroke of match making genius until the day that he did. 

 

\--

 

“Steve! Talk to me!” Sharon rolled off of him, back onto her side of the bed. “Or what? You can’t? Is your mouth broken now too?”

Steve was laying on his back on his side of the be, mouth slightly open as he breathed heavy. His mouth felt dry, he wanted to explain himself, but the words fell away from him like boulders in an avalanche.“I told you; it’s just not something I want—“ 

“So get some Viagra if you need it! Talk to your doctor! This can be _fixed,_ Steve.” Sharon was getting her clothes back on briskly in the heat of the argument. 

Steve sat up at that, storming off the bed and over to his closet. “I. Am. Not. Broken.”

Sharon crossed the room in some easy strides to the door. “Well if you won’t fix yourself, I’m leaving.”

“Fine.” Steve turned away from her, making a show of digging in his closet. She huffed, grabbing her purse of the table by the door and slamming it behind her. 

Steve slummed against the closet door, sighing into a ball of clothes in his hand. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor. Sharon’s words stung more than he would ever admit. These types of interactions made him feel like primordial soup. Of course he wasn’t broken, he knew that, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like a fake pocket sometimes. 

“Jarvis, where is Natasha right now?” 

“Out; I believe with Sam. Their last events in the tower have been redacted.” 

This caught Steve’s attention. A perfect distraction. He felt his emotions getting buried, and he was thankful for a self-assigned mission. He started throwing on clothes. “And Tony?” 

“Redacted as well, sir.” 

“Just for me or for the entire system?”

“This information has been redacted from you, however awaiting approval for redaction from the entire system.” 

Steve got out his secure line phone and ran out of his bedroom. Not much gets hidden from Captain America; when it is it’s only because some things need to get said in person and not through an AI. 

 

\--

 

Steve had a secure line with Natasha ringing as he headed to the garage. She answered without greeting. “We need you at SHIELD.” She cut the line before Steve could say anything. 

He was on his bike heading up Broadway in under five minutes. 

 

\--

 

Hill greeted him by handing him a SHIELD iPad and directing him to follow her. “A group of American POW were located by a regimen of the French army within 20 miles of Saint Petersburg. They are set to land here sometime in the next hour.” 

Steve could see on the screen a map of the exact location and descriptions of the conditions of the five prisonerswho were liberated. Two had missing arms; three had mental disillusions; all had electric burn marks on their head and various other body parts. They were heading to an office by the roof of the building. “This is a POW intake, what am I doing here?” 

“You are here as Steve Rogers, not as the Captain. I was told you would recognize one of the POWs” Hill walked cool and collected. Steve had avoided the images of torture victims but he opened them up now. And there he was. With a years worth of extra hair, a bloody stub where his left arm used to be, bleeding temples and a certain deadness in his eyes. His clothes were bloody and tattered and he looked drugged, but it as defiantly him, it was Bucky. 

Natasha was the first to greet Steve when he came into the room. “We didn’t want to give you false hope. They just sent over the images.” 

Steve nodded to her. There was a lot of information to process. The only thing left to do was wait.

 


	2. Little Lion Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve dealing with the hospital and his emotions.

“He looked right at me; and he didn’t even know me.” Steve was talking to Sam, but he was staring off into middle distance. Bucky hadn’t recognized Sam either, though they worked together through almost two tours. “He must have survived somehow, I didn’t look hard enough. The vaporization-“  
“That’s not your fault, Steve.” Natasha walked gracefully to Steve and Sam’s table in the SHIELD cafeteria. “They were able to finally figure out how to get the drug from their systems. It was developed to never get metabolized, and it was even wired for their captors to turn it’s effects on and off. We were able to keep a lot and it’s going straight to the labs.” She sat herself down. “They all fell asleep after and they are expected to experience withdrawal symptoms, and the doctor would not like them to get released until after they wake up. Two POWs have been identified and claimed by family; they are on their way here now. Steve, Bucky can be transferred to your custody at any time. But there isn’t much to do until he wakes up, just watch his vitals.”   
Steve nodded, deciding without a second thought just to spend the night here, in Bucky’s room if he could. This all sounded manageable. Bucky was alive, he was okay. But these facts didn’t stop Steve from feeling like a train had ran him over. The anxiety festered in the pit of his stomach; what if the withdrawal kills him? What if the trauma is to much for him to bear?   
“Is there anything we can do about his missing arm?” Steve voiced. He couldn’t keep Tony from his thoughts, though he wasn’t aware the Stark could do bio-machinery; other than the giant magnet in his chest.   
“There is evidence of a prosthetic having been used. There is still a recon team at the liberation site. The people working there destroyed a lot prior to their arrest. They are in French custody and SHIELD can’t interrogate them at least for another week. Paperwork. And the French don’t like us very much. We don’t—“  
“PAGING BW-13, H WING” The speakers in the building boomed.   
“That’s me.” Natasha got up. “I suggest waiting here. I’ll get you when Bucky’s room can take visitors.”   
“Sharon is here?” Sam asked, not missing the two people mentioned in the paging.   
Natasha just nodded and she was gone. 

-

“You can go, Sam, you don’t have to wait around with me.” Steve said, his chin in his hand while they waited for Natasha to return.   
“I’m on call anyway, and you look like you need a friend right now, man.” Sam was sitting back in his chair, just watching the cafeteria. “I heard Sharon broke up with you too, rough day.”   
“Yeah, I guess she did . . .” Steve trailed off, having pushed that from his mind.   
“Think you’ll be on good terms?” Sam was trying to distract Steve from worrying about Bucky, but this wasn’t a much better topic.   
“I think so, we still get along very well, we just, weren’t compatible in . . . Bed.” Steve felt blush creeping it’s way up his chest to his neck.   
Sam’s eye brows went up. “Want to talk about it?”  
“No.”

-

It was the we hours of the morning when Natasha made her way to Steve and Sam, a sleeping heap on their table, she debated leaving them but decided they would want to be woken up. She shook them gently.   
“Sharon, five more minutes . . .” Steve mumbled, before snapping his eyes open and sitting up. “Natasha!”   
Sam sat up, the sleep fading fast from his eyes. “Whats the news?”  
Natasha motioned with her head. “Grab a coffee and meet me in H wing, it’s going to be a long day.” 

-

Sharon was in the H wing waiting room when they got there. She was sitting with her elbows on her knees, looking down at the floor. Sam turned to Steve, asking a question with his eyes. Steve responded with a one shoulder shrug, it is what it is. Sam headed toward her cautiously, Steve nodded. Natasha watched this exchange, and took a seat on the opposite side of the room. Steve sat in a seat facing her. They were the only four here. They sipped from steaming cups.   
“There were two POWs who were missing arms, one left one right, and traces of mechanics were found where the limps cut off. They used to have prosthetics, but they were ripped off. The recon team found the destroyed remnants, they are sending them here for analysis. The doctors suggested the healthiest route is to remove more of the arm, to remove the metal lodged into it.” Natasha stopped, giving Steve a moment.   
Steve was holding his upper left arm in his right hand. He was overwhelmed, he was sitting perfectly still as Natasha talked, but anxiety was rising up in him, he felt prickly over his chest and shoulders. Bucky was dead yesterday, and today Steve had to made decisions about his future. He could hear Sam and Sharon talking quietly.   
Natasha powered on. “The burn marks on their skulls suggested mental tinkering. They have been assigned psychiatrists in the hospital per protocol.”  
Steve nodded. “I’ll take Bucky when he wakes up. I want to get a second opinion on his arm. I want to ask Tony about a manufactured limb and his opinion on the mechanics that are there. We can keep him with the psychiatrist here for now, but I’m going to ask Sam about it too. Bring the paper work to Bucky’s room. I’ll be there.” Steve stood up to go, mentally praising his ability to think fast on his feat. Glancing at his other two friends, Sam had put his arm around Sharon, comforting her on something. Steve felted mixed about that. But ultimately, he knew it was for the better and there wasn’t much that could make him mad at Sam.   
“Wait,” Natasha stood as well. “Hallway.” She demanded. Steve followed her out and she waited for the room door to close. “Sharon’s sister was one of the POWs. She died,” Natasha explained. “from the withdrawal.”   
Steve felt his blood go icy. He looked back at her, feeling bad at what he was just thinking. He felt torn now, between Sharon needing his support as a friend, and going to Bucky.   
“She’s fine with Sam.” Natasha cut through his internal monologue. “I heard what happen with you two anyway. You can talk later. Go see Bucky.” She soothed Steve, as she was always good at. Steve gave her a relieved look in thanks, before shooting down the hall.   
But damn, new spreads fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was aiming to post weekly chapters, but that got away from me when I decided to rewrite this chapter completely Thursday night. I will try to get on a weekly schedule. 
> 
> This chapter and the next few will be kind of heavy. But I ultimately really enjoy writing fluff and being funny. I mean I also very much enjoy dragging my characters through hell as well, so don't get to comfy. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!xxx

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm really shit at titling and I may change it. I've never released a chapter fic before and while I have the next few chapters mapped out, I don't know how many there will be or how often I'll be updating. As soon as I know, I will reflect it here. Teen rating just in case. Constructive criticism encouraged.


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